Chapter 5: Anything But a Date

CLARA

I was back in the woods, the calls of wolves all around me.

Moonlight trickled down to the forest floor, dancing as the branches of the trees above shifted in the wind. The air was thick with mist and the scent of pine, and it glimmered where the moonlight touched it.

I looked around, wondering how I’d gotten here, when the howling abruptly stopped.

My heart rate skyrocketed as a silvery wolf with glowing golden eyes stepped out of the trees.

It was massive, easily four feet tall at the shoulder, and its gaze was focused entirely on me. Those eyes were simultaneously familiar and dangerous, but I couldn’t run.

Even if I did, there would be no way I could outrun the beast.

Then I realized…I wasn’t actually afraid. The longer I stared into those golden eyes, the more I felt a deep sense of connection.

The wolf began to circle me, and I spun in sync, our eyes never leaving each other. And then he paused. Breaking our stare-off, he lifted his muzzle to the sky and let out a mournful howl.

It echoed in my chest, and I felt something stir inside of me. Something primal.

I reached out, and the wolf stepped closer, allowing my hand to brush his coarse fur. A surge of heat and light overpowered me.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself standing on all fours next to him.

The sounds and smells of the forest had intensified, and I could make out every leaf even in the darkness.

“~There you go~,” I heard in my mind, and when I looked at the wolf, I knew it had come from him. “~Welcome home~.”

He again began to howl, and I joined in, joy filling every cavity of my being.

We began to run, jumping and dodging trees as our powerful muscles pulled us deeper and deeper into the forest.

I had never felt freer than I did with the wind in my face and my tail waving behind me.

The wolf led me to the clearing where Elias’s cabin was, and we wove through the trees in the orchard, snapping playfully at each other’s heels.

I tripped over a tree root and rolled across the ground. When I came to a rest, the silver wolf stood above me, and I could hear laughter echoing in my skull. “~I see you aren’t used to your paws yet~,” he said and nuzzled my cheek. “~Clumsy girl~.”

“~Clumsy~?” I thought, feigning offense.

Though he had me pinned on my back, I pressed my front paws against his chest and pushed him backward. I swear he fell over on purpose, allowing me to jump to my feet and bowl into him.

We rolled around in the soft, dry grass of the orchard, taking turns pinning each other until I began to feel tired.

“~I have to go now~,” he said, and I shook my head as I panted. “~Come see me again, okay~?”

The silver wolf disappeared.

And I found myself blinking awake in my sleeping bag on the floor—very human and very alone.

***

My back absolutely killed me.

I groaned and rolled over, gasping at the sharp pain that ricocheted through my lower spine.

“Payday needs to come faster,” I groaned. “I’m not made for camping. I’m made for plush beds, hot showers, and gourmet breakfasts! Are you listening, universe? I’m manifesting pampering!”

I made my way to my knees and crawled out of the sleeping bag. My arms and legs protested, my muscles sore as if I’d actually been running through the woods all night.

“Stupid body. I’m only thirty-three! Give me a freaking break already.”

There were no plush beds or gourmet breakfasts, but at least I could have a hot shower. I turned the water up as hot as I could stand and climbed in, the rivulets leaving red streaks down my body.

The heat relaxed my sore muscles, and a sigh of pleasure escaped my lips. Thank goodness for utilities being included in the rent, because I stayed in that shower until the water ran cold.

I put on my last clean pair of clothes with a mental note to find the nearest laundromat on my break and headed to the car.

All the way to work, the dream played on a loop in my mind.

How ridiculous, right? Me, turning into a wolf and playing in the woods with another wolf who ~definitely~ sounded like Elias? I’d recognize that husky voice anywhere.

After a quick stop at the ambrosia machine—aka the office coffee pot—I sidled up to my desk. Ah, sweet nectar of productivity!

“I see you made it out of the woods,” Jason quipped from his own desk.

I glared at him, gesturing with my full cup as if to say, “I haven’t had enough coffee yet to deal with ~you~.”

He only laughed and continued, “When you weren’t back by five, I thought you’d gone feral out there or something.”

“If only,” I replied, moving my belongings to the floor so I could sit. “You just hoped I’d disappear so you could have your entire cubicle back, didn’t you?”

He gave me a look of fake shock, complete with both hands over his mouth. “No, never,” he said, the sarcasm thick in his voice. “Who would I annoy if you got eaten by the wolves out there? In any case, what did you think of Elias?”

“He’s just as mysterious and odd as you would think,” I replied, doing my best to act nonchalant.

~And ten times hotter than anyone I’ve seen in a long time.~

As if he could read my thoughts on my face, Jason raised his eyebrows, and mischief played on his lips.

“Mysterious, huh? Isn’t that how women tend to describe the male love interest during the first meeting in romance novels? Not that I read those or anything. But it sounds like someone has a crush.”

I snorted and rolled my eyes. “As if,” I replied, but the comment still lingered in my mind.

Was Jason right?

Even if he was, did it really matter?

There was nothing wrong with a crush on an attractive man, after all. I was single, he was single, and nothing would ever come of it anyway… So what was wrong with a little bit of daydreaming? Or even actual dreaming?

I opened my mouth to tell Jason about my odd dream, thinking he might find it amusing. But at the same time, I found it hard to explain.

The events were simple enough, but the feeling? I didn’t even know where to start. Nor did I ~want~ to start with my annoying coworker.

But Jason wasn’t finished. “It probably wouldn’t work out anyway, city girl. I can tell just by the way you carry yourself that you wouldn’t do well in a cabin-in-the-woods romance. Especially if you’re afraid of the wolves.”

He waggled his eyebrows, but the mention of wolves brought back the terror of last night. My smile fell, and Jason shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

“I saw them,” I said softly. “They were huge. At least a dozen of them followed me all the way to the end of the dirt road. It was terrifying.”

“Oh,” Jason replied. Though he attempted to be casual, I was pretty sure I saw genuine concern in his eyes. “Well, at least the interview is over, right? You won’t have to go back into the forest again.”

“Yeah.”

Jason rubbed the back of his head, obviously uncomfortable, and stood from his chair. “Well, I’ve got a meeting with Perkins in a few minutes, so I’d better head over to his office. Glad you made it back safely, Parks.”

I nodded, and he stalked away, leaving me alone in our cubicle.

I plugged the memory card from my phone into my laptop. The photos I’d taken of Elias’s paintings began to download, and I watched the thumbnails appear one by one in the folder.

One of them caught my eye just as it had the day before: the wolf howling beneath the blood-red moon. It was silver, just like in my dream.

I guess that’s where my brain had come up with the character.

Staring into its eyes pulled me back into my dream—and to Elias.

***

“You want to go grab lunch with me?” Jason asked, breaking me out of my boredom-induced stupor. “There’s a really good café a block down with a soup-and-sandwich lunch special.”

That sounded amazing, honestly, but I knew there was zero room in the budget for anything other than freezer burritos from the break room fridge.

I shook my head and gestured toward the break room door.

“I was just going to grab something here. Post-move finances, you know. Pretty broke until payday.”

Twentysomething-year-old me would never have admitted that, but something I’d discovered in my thirties was a strong sense of “to heck with what people think.”

“Oh, I intended to pay. You know, as a bit of a ‘welcome to the desk next to me’ type of thing,” he said.

I narrowed my eyes at him. Was he…asking me on a ~date~?

Because there was a 0 percent chance that I wanted to date the annoying coworker nobody else wanted to sit next to.

My suspicion must have been written all over my face, because he waved both hands and shook his head.

“Not in a romantic date sort of way, just a friendly ‘sometimes coworkers take turns paying for lunch’ kind of way, I swear.”

“Do you do that for ~every~ new employee?” I asked, continuing to stare him down.

Jason began to squirm, and inwardly I laughed that he was so easily influenced. I hadn’t even activated the turbo stare yet!

After a few seconds, his shoulders slumped a quarter inch.

“Okay, no. But do you want a free lunch or not? Because I’m starving, and if you keep staring, you’re going to get a freezer burrito that comes out of your paycheck instead of a soup of the day and a delicious sandwich.”

All right, he got me there.

“Fine, I’ll accept your offer. Only because literally nobody actually likes freezer burritos.”

We grabbed our keycards and made our way down to the ground floor and out onto the street.

It wasn’t very busy; nothing here was. Pretty sure the population of the city was less than a thousand people—unless you were in a hurry.

But we still had to wait for the only three cars on the entire road to pass before we could cross the street and make our way to said bistro.

It was the most creatively named place I’d ever seen: The Sandwich. No idea how they managed to come up with something so brilliant.

It was warm inside—a nice change from the chilly winter air—and smelled of roasted garlic and fresh bread. Paintings by local artists covered the walls (according to the little plaques below each one), and all of the tables and chairs were painted white.

A handful of other patrons milled about, some standing at the counter to make their orders, while others sat and dipped paninis in little paper cups of soup.

Jason and I took our spots at the back of the line, and I began glancing through the menu.

~This place was definitely not in the budget~, I thought as my eyes scanned the fifteen- to twenty-dollar sandwiches.

“What do they make these sandwiches out of? Bread baked by mountain monks and gold flakes?” I grumbled, and Jason began to chuckle.

“What? They’re expensive! I’m glad you’re paying because I would have walked my butt down the street to McDonald’s.”

“Have you ~seen~ the prices at McDonald’s lately?” Jason countered.

Honestly, he had a point.

He saw my frown and waggled his eyebrows before stepping up to the counter.

“Two lunch specials, please,” he said to the cashier, then turned back to me. “Soup of the day or tomato?”

“I hadn’t gotten that far, Jason.”

But I quickly located the soup-of-the-day sign, saw the words “potato leek soup,” and knew I needed that in my mouth pronto.

“Soup of the day,” I replied, “and a raspberry lemonade.”

While Jason dealt with paying for the food, I settled at a table in the corner with a nice view of the room.

Ten years of working for the media had made me a chronic people-watcher, and it wasn’t even a guilty pleasure anymore. It was just a pleasure.

The lack of music in the air even made it extra easy to listen in on the conversations around me. Most were boring—work meetings, a couple of young mothers bemoaning toddler exploits, that kind of thing.

But then I heard a word that piqued my interest.

“Did you hear how upset the wolves were last night? I wonder if there will be another body.”